The Mummy has received a lot of notice in the weeks since it was released, mostly because Universal launched a whole Universe with the Tom Cruise starrer and the results haven't been so hot. First, The Mummy was beat at the domestic box office by Wonder Woman when the DC movie was already in its second week. Now, it looks like the movie is probably going to lose money--and not just domestically. Recent reports indicate The Mummy could lose around $95 million by the end of its theatrical run.
Currently, The Mummy has brought in about $57 million domestically and nearly $237 million internationally, for a sum total that's shy of $300 million worldwide. By the end of its run, those who make such discernments believe The Mummy will have brought in about $375 million in total box office money, but unfortunately, Universal doesn't get to keep all of that money that comes out of the box office, and its revenue is only estimated at $250 million. Per Deadline, The Mummy's costs will end up being roughly $195 million for production and another $150 million for advertising and international costs, and the box office intake Universal is bringing in doesn't cover the film's budget plus all of the money that Universal spent advertising the movie worldwide. If you subtract $250 from the $345 million the movie cost, there's a $95 million deficit.
For a while it seemed that The Mummy would be able to recoup much of its budget and maybe even be able to make a little money off of international earnings, as the movie has been Tom Cruise's biggest international debut to date. However, as tends to happen with new movie releases, the money rolling in has slowed down in the weeks following the flick's release. Although The Mummy still has a few big markets to open in, including Japan, The Mummy is going to increasingly face competition, as Michael Bay's latest movie Transformers: The Last Knight hits theaters worldwide this weekend. One other problem is that the monster movie is making a huge chunk of its money in China, where Universal doesn't get to keep a huge chunk of the box office intake.
Still, for the Dark Universe, a $95 million loss isn't the biggest disaster. There's interest in Universal's new monster movies, especially internationally, and perhaps if the Tom Cruise film hadn't had so many problems, The Mummy would have ended on the other side of the line in terms of profit. It sometimes takes a little while for a new genre of movies to figure it out, and hopefully Universal will have better luck with the likes of The Creature From The Black Lagoon and The Invisible Man. Or at least will make more satisfying movies.
You can take a look at what other big projects Universal has coming up with its Dark Universe, or take a look a look at what else is coming up this summer with our full movies premiere guide.
